Are you double-minded?

With the launch of UberEATS, you can now dine from a restaurant without leaving your couch. So Hilary Barry asked me on TVNZ Breakfast whether this shift and others will turn us into generation lazy? My answer was no. And yes...

After all this isn’t the first time in history that home delivered food can be ordered remotely. Like many innovations it’s an evolution of what already exists. And in this particular case it will actually get more people off the couch – as you typically meet the driver at their car rather than having it delivered to your door.

How do I know this? Like any Futurist I did my research, reading the details of the service along with local and international reviews. But more importantly I recognised the limitations of the human brain in trying to predict the future...

We like to think that we can figure things out just by thinking. Our analytical brains convince us that we can reason our way forward to almost any answer. While business and education focus almost exclusively on logical thinking to problem-solve.

However as Mike Tyson once said “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Or if your analytical mind struggles with the idea of taking business advice from Tyson, in the words of Google X Co-Founder Tom Chi, “They teach you to think a lot in schools but I think it’s a little bit over-rated.”

Which a simple “Thinking by doing” innovation experiment proved. Instead of just giving my opinion on the impact of the launch of UberEATS – I ordered bagels. Choosing to actually experience something before forming an expert opinion.

As a result I learnt that I couldn’t pre-order from my out-of-zone couch. That the earliest morning order would arrive at the end of the Breakfast show, not during. And that although I could order and track delivery without human interaction, the driver would have to call me to negotiate delivery past TVNZ security.

Because I hadn’t ordered bagels for myself. They were for Breakfast hosts Hilary and Jack Tame. Demonstrating a critical learning...

Although wary of the dangers of change (which is an important fundamental instinct) actual behaviour proved to be very different. When I mentioned on live television I’d ordered bagels, a ripple of hungry anticipation went through the control room. And rational scepticism transformed into optimistic excitement.

As Hilary tweeted to her 85,000 followers after the show:

@dave_wild wow you really did predict the future! The bagels were great – thanks so much from Jack and me 😊

@Hilary_Barry no prob – the future’s looking bagelicious!

So if you want to create a better future, don’t just think.

Do.

Go faster: Watch an edited version (2 min) of the interview on Breakfast’s Facebook page

Go further: Skip to 1h:22m in and watch (5 min) the full bagel experience on TVNZ OnDemand (Fri 10 Mar)